Since the vacuum tube, heat has been the anathema of electronic components. Advances in components and design have addressed this to some extent. Modern circuits do more using less power. Many subcomponents of modern electronics are barely warm after hours of use. But modern integrated circuits pack so much into such a small area that heat sinks, particularly for the central processor chip are commonplace. Such heat sinks may be passive or active. For example, passive finned heat sinks are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,518,660 B2 and U.S. Published Application No. US 2001/0030037 A1; active heat sinks that integrate fans or liquid cooling are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,459,576 and 6,519,148, respectively.
All heat sinks, whether active or passive, use varying amounts of material having a high coefficient of thermal conduction. This material is typically a metal such as aluminum or an alloy of aluminum.
For a heat sink to operate effectively, it must be must in good thermal contact with the electronic component. Typically, this is accomplished using a screw, bolt, clip, spring, etc., singly or in combination. Ideally, the electronic component is removeably connected to the heat sink to facilitate replacement and repair as needed. A spring clip device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,540.
The increased power, reliability, and durability of modern vehicles results to a large extent from the integration of sophisticated computer monitoring and integration. In land based vehicles, such as cars, trucks, busses, etc., overall onboard computing power that integrates every aspect of vehicle operation requires the presence of multitude of processors, as well as related power units, sensors, connectors, etc.
Many vehicles are currently manufactured with electronic components assembled on a circuit board that slides into a heat sink assembly. Such configuration involves a blind assembly procedure and since visual inspection is impossible, must frequently be repaired by replacing both the circuit board and the heat sink assembly.
In many vehicles, the electronic components are located in the engine compartment where increased ambient temperature reduces the overall efficiency of the heat sink. In addition, vehicle electronics confront a severe environment where dirt and vibration levels constantly challenge the integrity of the processors as well as their connections to related devices. Further, economics demands that all these factors be addressed with a device package that is inexpensive to manufacture, assemble, and connect.